The Weekend Wonk: Kevin Trenberth on Climate Sensitivity

Dr. Kevin Trenberth has done some significant work recently on the movement of heat into the deeper ocean during the last decade or so. I had a conversation with him on the meaning of climate sensitivity last may, some of which appeared in my most recent video this past week.

When discussing global warming, the public eye is mostly directed to global average surface air temperatures, but that’s just one slice of the climate pie. If you haven’t noticed, the ocean is awfully big, and it holds a great deal more heat energy than the atmosphere. In fact, about 90 percent of the energy that’s been added to the climate system by human activities has gone into the ocean.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to monitor that. There are a multitude of measuring stations for surface air temperatures, but our presence in the ocean is limited. With the advent of the